


Sweet Skepticism of the Heart

by middlemarch



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Kissing, Marriage, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-11 00:16:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8945020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch
Summary: One man, three women, five sentences.





	

When he kissed Eliza, she was cool, disinterested, her lips pursed; she turned her cheek to him and he wondered, not for the first time, if it was a mistake, if duty was enough, the promise of his own children sufficient, whether he could be granted admission and if he wanted it.

When he kissed Lisette, she tasted of anise and clove, the strong red she preferred, the faint scent of turpentine under the jasmine at her throat, behind her ears, she bit him but only just enough…he remembered the moon falling, toppling into the Seine and the sensate anticipation after the operating theater, and he saw Mary, gravely watching him, the wife he hadn’t wed, how still she became when injured and Lisette’s mouth was enticing and bitter beneath his, a surfeit.

When he kissed Mary, he was aware of everything and nothing, the utter sweetness that he did not tire of, her exultant delight at the pleasure he gave her, where his lips touched hers and how she did not yield but sought; there was no past along his folded sulci, no other woman left within his mind, only her and should he give her a hundred kisses, he could only want to give her one more, then another, any concern beyond her mouth irrelevant.

When Mary kissed him, he stopped her, took her face in his face and looked in her eyes for any shadow but there was only light, an answer, assertion, and then her hands at his wrists, her murmur _love_ , an appellation, verb, noun, command and vow. She began again and he did not interrupt.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from Emily Dickinson. This is an exercise in what I could do with five sentences.


End file.
